as the title says, but is it worth it???????

pro's and cons please

santa might bring me a kit if i have good that is.

cheers

Forget beer, get some demijohns and get some mead and lemon wine on.

Mmmmmmmmm!

Just be careful with the lemon wine. It's a recipe for a killer hangover.

I would say its fun and something to have tried, but to be honest not used it much.
They only cost £20-£30 IIRC so worth a try

quote:

---

Originally posted by Lars
I would say its fun and something to have tried, but to be honest not used it much.
They only cost £20-£30 IIRC so worth a try

---

Pros - cheap, nice to have made it yourself

cons - you end up drinking it all which makes you fat, it doesn't taste as good as proper beer, it's a faff

Someone who i used to work with did this

If i remember he made 4 barrels at a time and the cost per pint was stupidly cheap!!!!!

I imagine its all down to if you can get it to taste nice or how you want it too...

I think the more sugar added the more % the brew !! it tasted like gone off vimto when we tried to much.....

I made my own brandy one year by fomenting sugar to make the alcohol. The Vinometer was showing 40% proof it I'm not sure that wa saccurate. It was really sweet, but If it was legal to distil aft than, then I'm sure I could have got rid of that. Of course, it's not legal to distill....

I used to do the home brew lager kits, and some were quite were good,
the cheapy end of the market were drinkable, but not that nice a taste, and the more expensive ones were much nicer,
but after a couple of failed brews, plus having to wait about 8 weeks for the fermantaion,

Its also quite a messy process, and the sterilization of all the equipment gave me a terrible asthma attacks

so i gave up,

I'm waiting for a few demijohns to mature.

I've got some local pressed apple cider, white wine, red wine and tea wine. The red wine will be used for Sangria, as the yeast died off before converting all the sugar (so it's a bit sweet). Cider tastes no worse than a lot of other scrumpies out there.

Definitely a fun experience and worth doing. Be prepared to mess up a few times though - still fun though, and a very cheap yet satisfying experiment.

Yes it is worth it. I've been homebrewing for some years and I like the DIY and technical aspects of it. I particularly enjoy making my own brewing equipment.

Kit brewing and adding sugar will result in the "homebrew" taste. Using two can kits you can get good results which are ideal for session beers.

A while back I moved to all grain brewing - almost the identical process a brewery uses. I'd say my beer is now at least on par with the bottles you'd pay the best part of £1.75 each for in the supermarket. My last brew cost ~60p per bottle.

Similar to the kit if you get into it there's a community aspect to it as well.

There's a lot of crap out there on the web but this guy is very very good.

http://www.howtobrew.com/

JC

Carrot wine 15 percent lovely stuff.

I started with a kit which came with a nice big fermemtation barrel, then moved up a gear to usuing a tin of un hopped malt extract and boiled up with hops then fermented, now I'm going all grain for my next batch but need to make/get some more equipment.

It's good fun and a cheap hobby start simple and get acquainted with the whole process, my local micro brewery's are really keen to show you how they brew if you interested and are a good source for grain & hops as they buy it in large qtys.

Been making home brew for 30 years or more now and like most areas, products have improved rapidly over the last few years.

Agree with See Bass and I mostly make 2 can kits (£22 for 40 pints) and they taste as good as any draught beer and much better than cans. I think the single can kits with sugar do have that old "homebrew" taste and put a lot of people off if they buy a "Starter Kit". I'd like to move on to All Grain brewing as I have tasted some and it's as good as any pint of real ale you will buy but it's a lot more involved and so at present I'm sticking with cans for convenience. Never had much success with lager or cider though.

I also make 5-10 gallons of Damson wine every year which is really tasty and costs next to nothing if you get the Damsons free.

Upsides are it's fun and satisfying much like building a car. Downsides are there is some capital outlay involved especially if you want to do it properly (I've just invested in a set of kegs, CO2, regulator and beer tap for about £250) and the main problem as Mooky says is you end up drinking more and getting fat.

As for most things there is a large internet community to help along the way.

http://www.brew-it-yourself.co.uk/homebrewing-forum/

By all means start with a kit but don't add too much sugar or it'll taste horrible and if it tastes nasty then that's why people go for the full mash.
The howtobrew website is recommended but it's not the only way of doing things and it does have some mistakes in it. The subject of alkalinity in howtobrew is not that well explained.

I agree- the fun bit (apart from drinking the beer) is making the kit. I've got a cooler box mash tun and a twin element big old boiler.

I used to do a lot of brewing, started with the kits and went on to mashing grain, i used to make records of what hops, when to add them,how much grain etc, then if i found one i really liked i could reproduce it, i used to have four barrels which were all different brews, if i had some almost ready for barrelling and no empty one i'd have a party and everyone would make room for my next couple of brews

Best advice I'd give is start with a brew kit and then venture out. It can be very hit or miss so best to have an emergency crate of beer/wine in just encase it doesn't taste great! Amazing how good a Heiniken will taste after some dodgy home brew.

Just cracked out my Christmas barrell - can't recommend it enough (although last years Christmas beer was rubbish)
I have 10 years practice and memory tells me it was worse in the past!
I recommend kit with your own twist - try a lager kit in summer with ginger or raspberries - current beer is mild with treacle, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg.

I agree with wine from fruit - I have no room to grow my own, but manage to acquire a lot from friends (reputation now says fruit = wine next year for the donor!) again I have been through many dodgy brews to get it right

Simply in answer -Yes give it a go, but persist and practise

D

I havent home brewed for many years.

However, 5 years ago I got into LARP (Live Action Role Playing) with my sons.
One group at the event (between 800-1000 people at each game) run an "In Character" Bar. ie their game is they run a pub.
He is disabled so cant do a lot of active running about and fighting etc.
They sell the beer for "In Character" (in game) money, hence avoiding any ot the legal ramifications like tax etc.
Environmental health still applies though.

After getting the know them both In Character and out of character (during and after the games), I have managed to find out his secret.

He brews two kits at a time, usally one kit is a darker beer (but not stout) and he adds 4Lb of Honey to the mix. This give it a slightly sweeter but silkier texture (but will depends on how much sweetness you ferment out). I have been a CAMRA Life member for 30 years, and I recon its worthy of being at a beer festival. I am amazed that beer that good can be home made.
Honey is not cheap these days, but it makes a HUGE difference to the quality of the end prduct. His std beers dont have the honey, and you can tell they are kit / home brew, namely they are not as good, but still hugely drinkable.

So any of you home brewers going to give this a try? If so, I would be very very interested to know how you get on.



PS Game is Maelstrom, run by Profound Decisions, http://www.profounddecisions.co.uk and next year is that last year of this game. Just in case anyone is interested.
They are starting a new game in 2013, so I will see how that goes!
Just in case there are any 'strommers that are also Locostbuilders ---- You never know!

hi and thanks for all your replies,

well i will see what the new year brings as its too late to start now this year. thanks again

steve